[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

(meteorobs) Fwd: Catastrophic Events & Mass Extinctions




------- Forwarded Message

From: Mark Davis <MeteorObs@charlestondot net>
Subject: Fw: Catastrophic Events & Mass Extinctions
To: [NAMN contacts...]

Forwarded from David Morrison....

Mark

=================================================
CATASTROPHIC EVENTS & MASS EXTINCTIONS: IMPACTS & BEYOND

Vienna, 9-12 July 2000

SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT

You are cordially invited to participate in the international 
conference on Catastrophic Events and Mass Extinctions: Impacts and 
Beyond, to be held at the University of Vienna, Austria, from Sunday, 
July 9, 2000, to Wednesday, July 12, 2000. The meeting will start 
with registration and a welcome party on Sunday, July 9, 2000, at the 
Geological Survey of Austria, Rasumofskygasse 23, A-1030 Vienna. Oral 
and poster sessions will be held Monday to Wednesday (July 10-12, 
2000) at the "Geozentrum" (UZA II) of the University of Vienna, 
Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna. Detailed directions to both locations 
will be included in the final announcement. In a slight change to the 
information given in the first announcement, we are now offering two 
pre- and two postconference field trips, to allow participants to 
join two different field trips if they so desire (see Field 
Excursions below).

Vienna is the capital of the Federal Republic of Austria, a member of 
the European Community. With about 2 million people in the Vienna 
metropolitan area (out of about 8 million in Austria), it is one of 
Europe's most historical and beautiful cities. Palaces, museums, 
gardens, coffee shops, wine caverns (the famous "Heurigen"), and 
abundant musical events offer entertainment and
relaxation (preferably before and after the conference!). The weather 
in July should be pleasant, warm (about 20-30 degrees Celsius, or 
68-85 degrees Fahrenheit), and mostly sunny, but occasional cold 
spells and rainy periods are possible. Public transportation is 
inexpensive and efficient. Vienna is easily reachable by airplane, 
train, or car.

For detailed information on Vienna, including cultural programs, 
museums, concerts, public transportation, maps, addresses, and other 
links, see the Web page of the Vienna Tourist Board (info.wien.at/). 
For general information on Austria, see the Web page of the Austrian 
National Tourist Office (www.austria-tourism.at/).

This conference will be the fourth of an informal series of meetings 
on mass extinctions and global catastrophes, including the geological 
and biological consequences of large-scale impact events. The first 
and second of these meetings were held in 1981 (October 19-22) and 
1988 (October 20-23) at Snowbird, Utah, and the third one took place 
in 1994 (February 9-12) in Houston,
Texas. The first of these meetings dealt mainly with the 
then-controversial hypothesis that a large-scale impact event 
occurred 65 m.y. ago and was responsible for the end-Cretaceous mass 
extinction; the second meeting focused on the evidence (e.g., in 
terms of shock metamorphism) that such a large impact event happened; 
and at the third conference the discussion centered on the Chicxulub 
impact structure, which had in the meantime been proposed as the 
long-sought K/T boundary impact crater.

We are now at a stage where the question should be asked if (and how) 
short-term, high-energy events influence biological evolution on the 
Earth. Various mass extinctions, of different degrees, mark some of 
the geological boundaries. These have been studied in the past, but 
only recently has there been a discussion on how short the timescale 
of these mass extinctions really was. For example, recent studies of 
the most profound extinction event in Earth's history, at the end of 
the Permian, indicated a much shorter time
frame for this event than earlier data had suggested, with 
significant associated geochemical anomalies. The cause for this 
global catastrophe is currently unknown. Other short-term events 
(e.g., Proterozoic Snowball Earth, late Devonian, Triassic-Jurassic, 
late Eocene) in the stratigraphic record of the Earth are now 
receiving unprecedented attention. Thus we feel that the time has 
come to summarize and discuss the current state of knowledge of the 
character and causes of mass extinctions and catastrophic events in 
the history of our planet.

The venue for the scientific sessions will be the new "Geozentrum" 
(UZA II) of the University of Vienna at Althanstrasse 14 in Vienna's 
9th district. This building houses all Earth science institutes of 
the University of Vienna, as well as a library and various lecture 
halls. Oral and poster sessions will be held from Monday, July 10, to 
Wednesday, July 12, 2000. Registration will be available throughout 
the meeting. No parallel sessions are planned. Oral sessions will be 
held from 8.30-12.30 and from 14.00-18.00, with a half-hour coffee 
break during each session. A poster session (with refreshments) will 
be held next to the lecture hall on Monday afternoon (July 10, 2000). 
Posters will
remain on display throughout the entire meeting. A public lecture 
broadly related to the topic of the meeting is planned.

To maximize interaction among all participants, allow for ample 
discussion time, and emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of this 
meeting, all contributions will be considered (similar to previous 
meetings of this series) for poster presentations. Oral presentations 
will consist of 25-minute invited reviews intended to set the stage 
for certain topics selected by the international
program committee, and some 5-minute presentations selected by the 
program committee from all other contributions. The latter are 
intended to supplement review talks on specific topics and provide 
either new and important data, viewpoints, arguments, or present a 
controversial viewpoint. Discussion time will be scheduled to amount 
to approximately 50% of the total time available. Also, to allow 
efficient interaction and discussion, attendance will be limited to 
300 participants (the maximum capacity of the lecture hall).

Researchers in scientific disciplines related to any aspect of the 
meeting are invited to contribute abstracts for poster presentation 
(print-only abstracts will not be considered). As explained above, 
the program committee will select some of these abstracts for 
five-minute oral presentations. Abstracts may not
exceed TWO pages, including graphics, tables, and references. All 
abstracts must include FULL mailing addresses of all authors. 
Possible topics include, but are not necessarily limited to, the 
following:

* Crises in Earth history
* Proterozoic Snowball Earth
* Late Devonian extinctions
* Permian-Triassic boundary
* Triassic-Jurassic boundary
* Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary
* Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary
* other boundary events
* Environmental consequences of impacts and other short-term,
   high-energy events (e.g., volcanism)
* Mechanisms of mass extinctions: causes and relations
* Atmospheric response to impacts, volcanic eruptions, glaciations
* Connection between impacts and volcanism
* Interpretation of the stratigraphic record:  reading event
   markers, determination of near-extinctions, recognition of a
   hiatus, discussion of "true" blind tests
* Extraterrestrial influences:  near-Earth asteroids, comets,
   companion stars, supernovae, etc.
* Large-scale impact events in Earth history

Abstracts on related topics not listed here are also welcome. 
However, contributions should be relevant to the general theme of the 
meeting; thus papers dealing with, e.g., details of a particular 
impact crater, or local biostratigraphy, may not be considered. 
Contributors are also asked to indicate whether they regard their 
work as primarily new data, new data with significant
implications, a model or new interpretation of data, or a review.

ABSTRACT DEADLINES

Deadline for hard-copy submission
FEBRUARY 25, 2000 (5:00 p.m. CST)   

Deadline for electronic submission
MARCH 3, 2000 (5:00 p.m. CST)

More information at
http://www.lpi.usradot edu/meetings/impact2000/impact2000.2nd.html


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
David Morrison, NASA Ames Research Center
Tel 650 604 5094; Fax 650 604 1165
david.morrison@arc.nasadot gov or dmorrison@mail.arc.nasadot gov
website: http://space.arc.nasadot gov
website: http://astrobiology.arc.nasadot gov
website: http://impact.arc.nasadot gov

------- End of Forwarded Message

To UNSUBSCRIBE from the 'meteorobs' email list, use the Web form at:
http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren/meteorobs/subscribe.html